Objective truth ‘only hope' of democracy

The American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has released a new book, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, in his campaign to promote scientific literacy.

Mr Tyson discussed on the Today programme the US education system’s approach to learning. He said if people were trained to process and analyse information, they would be empowered with the ability to judge what is true and what is not.

He challenges the treatment of science in the Trump administration saying: “the only hope of democracy is to base laws and legislation on objective truths”.